A printhead, for example, for an ink jet printer may include a series of nozzles disposed in a predetermined pattern to spray drops of ink onto print media. The printhead may include the nozzles electrically connected to a printhead controller by a series of metal traces. The metal traces may be connected to the nozzles for direct control of individual nozzles or groups of nozzles.
In many instances, ink jet printers are designed to print a vertical row of dots or a horizontal row of dots, generally all at the same time, from multiple nozzles. Then, after waiting a period of time, another row of dots is printed all at the same time. To fire many nozzles simultaneously, a large amount of energy is to be provided over a short period of time via the metal traces. Because the metal traces on a printhead are generally thin, they have limited current carrying capacity. This can be overcome by increasing the trace thickness or width or using lower resistivity conductor material, such as gold. However, these design changes can result in increased costs and decreased reliability caused by a higher drive voltage.